1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an actuator-link assembly including an actuator that can be attached to a control surface of an aircraft or to a horn arm member in order to drive the control surface, and a link that is connected to the actuator, a manufacturing method for manufacturing the actuator-link assembly, and a designing method for designing the actuator-link assembly.
2. Description of Related Art
An aircraft is provided with control surfaces that are formed as moving surfaces (flight control surfaces) and are configured as an aileron, a rudder, an elevator, and the like. As an actuator for driving such a control surface and a link that is connected to this actuator, those disclosed in JP H5-97095A and JP 562-165007A are known. With the actuator-link assemblies disclosed in JP H5-97095A and JP 562-165007A, the actuators are provided as a hydraulically driven cylinder mechanism that can be attached to a control surface or a horn arm member attached to the control surface, and the links are coupled pivotably to the actuator and the control surface.
The actuator-link assemblies for driving a control surface of an aircraft as disclosed in JP H5-97095A and JP S62-165007A are required to have high strength in order to support the load for driving the control surface, and are also required to have high rigidity from the viewpoint of suppressing the deformation and ensuring the stability as the control systems for driving the control surface. For this reason, when the actuator-link assemblies as disclosed in JP H5-97095A and JP S62-165007A are designed and also when they are manufactured, a metallic material such as stainless steel or a titanium alloy can be selected as the material constituting the actuator-link assemblies from the viewpoint of ensuring the required strength and rigidity. However, since the actuator-link assemblies are made of a metallic material, there is a limit to their weight reduction, and it is difficult to achieve further weight reduction in the current situation.
When a titanium alloy is used as the material constituting an actuator-link assembly, a high specific rigidity, which is the rigidity per unit weight, can be ensured, but the specific strength, which is the strength per unit weight, is reduced. For this reason, ensuring the strength becomes a constraint, making it difficult to achieve weight reduction. On the other hand, when stainless steel is used as the material constituting an actuator-link assembly, a high specific strength can be ensured, but the specific rigidity is reduced. For this reason, ensuring the rigidity becomes a constraint, making it difficult to achieve weight reduction.
Therefore, in order to provide an actuator-link assembly that can ensure strength and rigidity in good balance and achieve weight reduction, it is necessary to design the structure of an actuator-link assembly from a point of view that is completely different from that of conventional technology. Also, in addition to achieving weight reduction, it is necessary to ensure strength and rigidity that are equivalent to or greater than those achieved by the conventional technology.